Yet another problem, Marigold. Farm intensification in all areas (pesticides, fertilisers and changing practises) is decimating our wildlife. In a country where financial resources are tight I can't see government of any persuasion using large amounts of money to compensate farmers for changing there farming practises.
At the risk of sounding like Private Fraser, we're all doomed. The world refuses to address overpopulation and the environment will continue to decline. Our filthy air will be matched by our polluted seas.
I am glad that I have lived at a time when we have reached the zenith of civilisation. I feel sorry for the children and grandchildren who will inherit an impoverished world.
Of course over the ensuing millennia the world will clean itself up and heal itself. But we won't be here to see it.

Is there a solution before this happens? Yes but I don't see any meaning full attempts to do so. I pray for a global pandemic because despite the massive amount of human suffering this would cause it would be to our advantage.
Or perhaps a natural event. An ice age, a super volcano, a meteorite strike. All have happened before.

NB
Googled it. It's only lived here since 2001 which is why I'd never heard of it. Maybe once Brexit happens it will migrate back to Europe."

Hopefully come Brexit, the oak processionary moth caterpillars will migrate back with the tree bees. Hard working tax paying Eastern European migrants I don't have a problem with, especially on our local fruit farms... The tree bees & caterpillars on the other hand...

Chickens are a girl's best friend (though diamonds would be nice too!)

Off on a slight tangent, this morning we cleared out our adega (where you make wine and store stuff, wood in our case). It's dark and cool, made of stone with an earth floor. My hand encountered something soft. Cue scream. I sent OH to investigate and when he brought it out into the daylight, it was.....a stuffed turtle dove

It's not the first bit of taxidermy we have found, we had fun with a stuffed genet (like a cross between a cat and a mongoose) and unsuspecting visitors for a while. The dove is sitting on a branch and is currently indoors. It's a bit moth eaten and only has one eye. I know a lot of people find this sort of thing macabre, but I am intrigued and the animals make me think as I can study them closely. It may be a Welsh thing, my Mother tells me Aberystwyth was well known way back way as a skilled centre for taxidermy and I know 3 Welsh families with wildlife in glass cases. I will inherit my grandmother's pet dove in due course which is about 100 years old

I once had a stuffed Green Woodpecker which I eventually gave to a friend who admired it. Right now I have a stuffed ferret which has been relegated from my mantle piece to a drawer.
Anyone who looked at theworldismylobster will see the truth of this.
I'm not sure how I feel about it. The Natural History Museum or that museum in Tring are fascinating places. But as I've grown older I have come to feel that such things are a tad macabre. I have said to my husband that if he predeseases me I will have him stuffed and use him as an umbrella stand (no, don't ask!).
On my hearth I have one of those giant conch shells smuggled back from the Maldives by a friend. So I certainly don't sit in judgement.

We once stayed in a holiday cottage that had about 30 stuffed mice all in clothes posed in human situations around the place, very weird.
Went to a stately home somewhere that had a fox upright in the games room holding the snooker cues.
Using your husband as an umbrella stand is moving on up from the elephant foot umbrella stand beloved of Victorians

Must have been a slightly weird experience BYM! I have seen those mice in clothing things on antiques programmes.

I was up very early this morning and threw open a window to hear a weird call. I knew it was a bird, although it sounded slightly mechanical. A cockeral was crowing in response. Anyway, I thought it might be a red legged partridge as I had seen them next door, and a couple rather comically running down the road. I listened to some recordings on the internet (coincidentally from Portugal and Spain) and this confirmed it. I feel pleased that I now know something that I didn't know before!

Isn't that just the best bit about about nature, you never stop learning.There is always something new to discover.
Had a huge moth on the side of one of our buses at the depot the other day. Lovely camouflage colours, apart from the fact it was on the side of a blue/silver bus.
Looked it up when I got home in our British moth book and it was a Lime Hawk moth a new moth for me.
A site called Xeno Canto is brilliant for bird sounds as it has recordings of flight calls, alarm calls, songs of every bird you can think of

BYM - that is the one I used! It was a bit off putting to start with because I couldn't understand what to do, and it seemed ever so technical, but then I got the hang of it and became quite awestruck with the amount of information on it, as I realised how many people around the world take the time to engage with this, and to record and upload songs and calls. Its now in my favourites.

I looked up the Lime Hawk moth (not thinking, I was expecting it to be lime green....) and its strangely familiar, I think I must have seen it somewhere. Lime trees are probably my favourite tree, I love the smell of the blossom. Tilia is a favourite infusion here, our neighbours love it as a relaxing drink in the afternoon or evening and use it for sore throats; so we do that as well now. They have a magnificent tree and gave us a big bag of blossoms; in fact when we were house hunting one of the old houses, with elderly occupants, had a bedroom full of drying blooms. Its nearly 4pm, guess what I am going to do now!